Fuel pulverizer



SePt- 17, 1929- H. G. LYKKEN 1,728,423

FUEL PULvEaIzER Filed June 12. 1924 Patented sept. 11, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FUEL PULVEBIZER Application led June 12. 1924. Serial No. 719,488.

the crushing means, when acting upon non-j crushable materials or objects, a ainst the injury to the crushing means, pre erably by the provision of means that automatically act to remove the non-breakable or non-crushable objects from the crushing. means; to provide for protecting the means for feeding the crushed fuel to the grinder or ulverizer, against entry of non-crushable objects in thel feeding means; to provide for crushin fuelA at a greater rate than the crushedfuel 1s fed to the grinder or pulverizer; tov provide for feeding back the excess of the crushed fuel with the fuel to be crushed; to provide for feeding the crushed fuel at aV given rate to the grinder or pulverizer; ,to provide such feeding means with a variable drive capable of adjusting the rate of speed of feeding to that desired; to provide against injury ofthe grinding parts by the non-crushable or non' grindablc objects; tolprovide for feedin of rotor of the grindlng means; to provide for throwing oif the hard or non-crushable or non-grindable substances by virtue of the relative specific gravities of them and the the crushed fuel against'the periphery o the v fuel; to provide .for projecting the f ed fuel through the projected fuel for carryin the finer particles to a place of use; to provi e for further breaking up of the fed fuel by impact, as by rapidly revolving rinding members; to provide for grinding te fed fuel between or by the grinder parts and casting or hurling the ground fuel against impacting surfaces o1` walls for aiding in the extracting of the finer particles from the coarser particles; to provide for creating a partial vacuum or suction in4 the device for drying or extracting the finer particles of fuel from the coarser particles thereof; to provide for regulating the j entry or admission ofair to the device when .extracting the finer particles of the fuel; to

00 provide means for removal of the non-crushable and non-grindable objects collected in the collecting space or pocket; and to provide for such further and other objects, advantagesl and capabilities as will later appear and are inherently'possessed by the invention.

fIn the drawing, showing a form of the invention Fig. 1 is a view artly in side eleva? tio'n and partly in vertica section of adevice constructed in accordance with the'invention; and, Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section taken on a plane represented by liney 2--2 of Figi-1 of the drawing. f

lReferrin now' more particularly to the y'115 drawing, t e embodiment selected to illus-y trate the invention com rises supporting "members 1 rest-ing u on a oor 2 and suitably secured to side wa ls 3 between which are located a grinding chamber 4, a collecting receptacle 5, a fuel hopper 6 and an expansion chamber 7. The grinding mechanism has peripheral walls 8, 9 and 10 thereof extending between the side walls 3 and having suitable langes 11 b which the wall portions of ll the grinder may e secured to the side walls 3 as by means of bolts 12. The wall portions 8, 9 and 10 are so shaped to form shoulders 13 for holding in arcuate or substantially circular arrangement a. set of grinder elements 14 l with which cooperate the hammers 15 of a rotor 16 secured to a shaft 17 extending transversely through the grinding chamber and the side walls 3, the latter carrying suitable ball bearings 18 for the shaft, and one end of the shaft having secured thereto a drlvlng pulley 19and the other end of the shaft extending into a vacuum pump 20 and being secured to a suction fan 20 therein.

At one side of the chamber 4, namely at the side where the collecting receptacle 5 is located, the chamber 4 is provided with an opening 21 through which fuel is fed to the rotor and cast or projected from the chamber 4 by the same means.

Above the grinding mechanism is located the hopper 6 which is preferably open at its upper end and provided at its lower portion with inclined walls 22 and 23 between which is located a rotary and tilted crusher 24l secured to a shaft 25 extending to the exterior of the hopper and operated by suitable driving mechanism of the kind described in my co-pending application Serial No. 694,460 and filed February 23, 1924. In the inclined wall 22 is provided an opening 26 located opposite the crusher 24 and normally closed by a plate 27 pivotally supported by means of pivots or shaft 28 between the side walls 3 and rotatably supported in suitable bearings carried by said side walls. The plate has rearwardly extending portions 29 to which is secured an arm 30 carrying a weight 31 `which may be adjustable along the arm 30 and held in adjusted position by a set screw 32 as clearly shown in Fig. 2 of the drawing. The weights normally holding the plate 27 in closed position and in proper relation with the crusher or breaker 24 so as to gage the maximum size of the fuel being crushed between the roll 24 and the plate 27, but if any objects of non-breakable orf non-crushable character should interfere with the roll and the plate, the latter will yield to open the port or opening '26 to permit the non-crushable objects to be ejected or forced from the hopper to the exterior thereof through the vopening 26. v

The wall 23 has an opening 33 through which projects the vanes or propellers 34 of a feeding roll 35 connected to a shaft 36 extending through the side walls 3 and supported in bearings carried by these side walls and operated by the driving mechanism. The crusher roll 24 after crushing the fuel feeds or forces the same toward the feeding mechanism. so that the vanes 24 thereof will carry the fuel toward the opening 21 so as to feed the fuel tothe propeller 16, the latter operating in the direction of the arrow indicated in Fig. `2 and upon first impact by the hammers 15 will cast the fuel toward the collecting receptacle 5. Should the crushed and fed'fuel contain small non-grindable objects which may have passed within the gage space between the crusher roll and the plate 27, the hammers 15 will project the same into the receptacle 5. It will be apparent that fuel will also be likewise protected to the extent that the receptacle 5 will be filled with this material and with an inclined surface 37. The action of the rotor 16 upon the non-crushable objectslis to cast the same with sufficient force into the fuel accumulated in the receptacle 5 so as to imbed or bury such objects in such fuel so that there will be no danger of the objects rolling down the surface 37 and into the lower end of the opening 21 and the chamber 4 where the grinding action should take place. Excess of the fuel will, of course, gradually find its way, by the gravit-y, along the surface 37 and feed itself into the chamber 4 for grinding operation of the hammers thereon infcooperation with thestationary grinding members 14 arranged within the wall portions 8, 9 and 10 of the grinder. The lower part of the collecting receptacle may be provided with a sliding door 38 which may be opened for convenient removal of the material that may have accumulated in the receptacle and particularly for the removal of the foreign non-crushable objects accumulated therein.

At the upper end of the collector 5, which is open at this end, communicates the lower open end of the expansion chamber 7. This chamber has an inclined wall 39 extending with a slidable plate 40into the upper space of the receptacle 5 and opposite the opening 21 ofthe grinder, this plate acting as an ad-V justable wall lor surface against which the ground fuel may be cast or projected with force from the upper part of the opening 21 against this plate, the projection of the fuel being preferably fan shaped. The receptacle 5 lalso has a vertical wall 41 extending upwardly and also opposite, but at a greater distance than the plate 40, from the opening 21 and which also serves as an impacting surface or wall against which some of the fuel projected tangentially from the rotor 16 of the grinder may strike whereby the ground fuel so projected may be thoroughly stirred. Between ,the upper end of the wall 41 and the plate 40 is preferably provided a pivoted door or damper 42 for controlling the opening 43 and regulating the inflow of atmospheric air into the upper part of the receptacle 5 and upwardly through the opening of the lower end of the expansion chamber 7, as clearl shown by the arrow appearing on Fig. 2 of the drawing. As the ground fuel is hurled or cast from the upper part of the rotor 16,'the sameA is thrown against the impacting surfaces and thoroughly stirred so that as the air is passed through the same it will separate or extract the finer particles by a sort of pneumatic action and carry the same into the expansion chamber 7 where a suitable amount of air or other supporter of combustion may be mixed therewith prior to the carrying or feeding of the mixture through theport 43 leading to a conduit 44 connected with the intake 45 ofthe suction device 21. The expansion chamber may be provided with one or more ports 46 controlled by doors or dampers 47 for the admission of air or other supporter of combustion into the chamber for mixing with the finely divided and extracted particles of the fuel.

Referring again to the crushing mechanism and the hopper, the latter is provided with an inclined wall 48 spaced from the wall 23 and provided with an opening normally closed by a pivoted door or damper 4S) which remains closed by gravity. The Crusher roll is designed to operate to feed and force the crushed fuel atI a greater rate than the same is operated upon and fed by the feeding wheel 35 to the grinding mechanism. This will pro-v duce an excess of fuel in the chamber 50 between the walls 48 and 23 and this excess will feed back through the upper part of the4 engaging with a pulley 52 forming part of' the driving mechanism for the crusher roll and thefeed roll 35 and the other mechanism as described in my above mentioned co-pending application.

After the fuel has reached the suction device 2() it is forced through a suitable con duit to a place of use such as in a conbustion chamber of a. boiler, furnace, heater or the like.

In operation the fuel is supplied to the hopper 6. If there are any large lumps, the same are usually broken to some extent and the smaller ones that may be (included in the fuel will be crushed by the .breaker roller or crusher 24` in the space between it and the plate 27. Should any large pieces of iron, stone, or other non-crushable objects be present in the fuel, the same will cause the door or plate 27 to open and be ejected through the opening 26 to the exterior of the device. The material crushed to a limited maximum size, usually about an inch, is then forced and fed toward the feeding wheel 35 which in turn engages upon the crushed material and feeds the same at a definite rate to the opening 21 for engagement by the 'propeller or rotor 16. [The wheel 35 is preferably driven by variable speed driving mechanism which may be varied or adjusted to the desired speed. The excess of fuel accumulating in the chamber 50 will feed backthrough the opening of the door 49 and return into the hopper 6. y

It often occurs that smaller non-crushable objects will pass by the Crusher and the feeder and be fed into the grinder. If these objects were to be engaged between the elements 14 and 15 of the grinder, injury to the same might occur. 'This invention therefore involves the idea of feeding the fuel initially to the discharge or downwardly moving side of the hammers so that their first engagement will be a projection of the fuel and the objects with considerable force into the collecting receptacle 5. The non-crushable objects being heavier or of greater specific gravity will tend to sink in the lower part of the receptacle or be buried or imbedded in the crushed and fed fuel in this receptacle. It will be noted that the lower edge of the opening 21 is located in an approximately lower plane than the plane of the shaft 17, so that as non-crushable objects enter the chamber they are readily cast out by the rotor into the receiver or receptacle 5, during'the downwardly travelling phase of the rotation of said rotor. The receptacle will normally be filled with lfuel and whatever objects may have been projected therein to the extent that there will be an inclined surface 37 whereby the fuel will move or feed backwards and downward into the lower part of the opening 21 and into the chamber 4 of the grinder.`

With the fuel in this condition if any further hard or non-breakable objects are cast by the hammers into the fuel at the surface 37 they will, by reason of their greater specific gravity, be thrown with such force into the fuel that they will become imbedded or buried .therein so that they is no danger of their rolling down the surface 37 into the grinding chamber. The fuel that is moved into the chamber from the receptacle 5 will be ground between the elements 14 and 15 and will be cast or projected across the space from the upper endof the opening 21 to and against the impacting surfaces of the plate 43 and the upper part/of the wall 41 whereby the ground fuel will be thoroughly stirred and thrown about in this space. The suction blower 20 in the meanwhile creates a vacuum or partial vacuum in the conduit 44 and mixing chamber 7 so that there will be an inflow of air through the opening 43 and by the door 42 and into the passage between `the plate 40 and the -wall 41 and upwardly between the discharge side of the grinders and into the lower open portion of the expansion chamber. This stream of air will pass through the fan of fuel as well as the fuel thrown back by the impact with the impacting surfaces and will extract from this fuel the finer particles and carry the same into the expansion chamber 7 where air or other supporter of combustion vadmitted through the opening 46 will mixy with the finer particles and proceed to the port 43', conduit 44 and to the suction device 20 which will feed the combustible mixture to a place of use. 'lhe heavier particles will fall on surface 37 and return to be reground.

ll'hile I have herein described and upon the dra\\'ings shown a preferred form of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not liniited to the particular details, construction and arrangement of parts described and shown, but that other details, constructions and arrangements of parts are coinprehcndml thereby without departing from the `spirit thereof.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a fuel pulverizer, means for pulverizing the material, means for crushing the material to a given size preparatory to pulverizing, the last said means including a movable plate against which the material is crushed and adapted to be moved to permit the escape of non-crushable material.

- 2. In a pulverizer, means for crushing the material to a given size, means for pulverizing the crushed material, the first said means including a roll and a Crusher plate, means for normally holding said plate in position for the crushing operation, and means for allowing said plate to be moved out of normal by a non-crushable object.

3. In a pulverizer, means for crushing a material to a given size, means for pulverizing the crushed material, the first said means including a crusher roll and a plate spaced apart from the roll for gauging the crushed size of the material, means for holding said plate in normal spaced relation to said roll,

l and means for allowing saidplate to be moved by a non-crushable object.

4. In a pulverizer, means for crushing a material to a given size, means for pulverizing the crushed material, the first said means including a Crusher roll and a plate against which the material is crushed, a port in the pulverizer opposite said roll and normally closed by said plate, means for allowing a non-crushable object to push said plate out of normal thereby opening the port, and means forreturning said plate to and for holding said plate in normal crushing position.

5. A unit pulverizer comprising crushing means for fuel, grinding means for the crushed fuel and means for Supplying the ground fuel to a point of consumption, said crushing means including a plate against which the fuel is crushed and which is movable to permit the ejecting of non-crushable objects.

6. In a pulverizer, crushing means for crushing fuel to a given maximum size, means for feeding the crushed fuel to a grinder, said crushing means crushing the fuel in excess of the rate of feed of the feeding means, and means for directing the excess of the crushed fuel to the crushingmeans.

7. In a pulverizer, crushing means for 8. In a pulverizer, a grinder,'a hopper for fuel, a crusher in the hopper, a feeding device for the crushed fuel and operable to feed the fuel at a given rate to the grinder, a chamber between the crusher and the feeding device for holding the crushed fuel, and means for feeding back excess of fuel in said chamber to the hopper.

9. In a pulverizer, a grinder comprising a grinding chamber having an opening in the upper part thereof, grinding parts in the chamber and including a rotor adapted to project ground material through said opening, means for supplying material to be ground through and throughout the width of said opening to said rotor.

y 10. In a pulverizer, a grinder comprising a chamber having an opening for entry and discharge of thefuel, grinding parts in the chamber and including a rotor operable to cast ground fuel through said opening, a collecting receptacle adjacent said opening whereby non-grindable objects fed to the rotor may be cast into said receptacle and having an air inlet passage for directing a stream of air into said opening.

1l.` In a pulverizer, a grinder comprising a chamber having an opening for entryand discharge of the fuel, grinding parts in the chamber and including a rotor operable to cast ground fuel through said opening, a collecting receptacle adjacent said opening whereby non-grindable objects fed to the r0- tor may be cast into said receptacle, and a closure for the receptacle through which the collected objects may be removed, said receptacle having 'an air inlet passage for the inflow therethrough of air over the surface of the material collected in said receptacle.

12. In a pulverizer, a grinder comprising a chamber having a common opening for entry and discharge of the fuel, grinding parts in the chamber and including a rotor operable to cast ground fuel through said opening, a collecting receptacle adjacent said opening whereby non-grindable objects fed to the rotor may be cast into said receptacle, an expansion chamber communicating with said grinder chamber through said opening and arranged to receive ground fuel, and means for extracting the finer particles of the ground fuel and moving the same into the expansion chamber.

13. In a pulverizer, a grinder comprising a chamber having a common opening for entry and discharge of the fuel, grinding partsopening whereby non-grindable objects fed to the rotor may be cast into said receptacle,-

ing, a collecting receptacle adjacent said n cles of the fuel projected to and against said wall.

14. In a pulverizer, a grinder com rising a chamber having a common opening or entry and discharge of the fuel, grinding parts in the chamber and including a rotor operable to cast ground fuel through said opening, a collecting receptacle adjacent said opening whereby non-grindable objects fed to the rotor may be. cast into said receptacle, said receptacle having an impacting surface for the projection thereagainst of the ground fuel from the rotor, means for admitting a stream of air for extracting the finer particles of the fuel projected to and against said surface,

and means for regulating the infiow of air.

15. In a pulverizer, a grinder comprising a chamber having a common opening for entry and discharge of the fuel, grinding parts in the chamber and including a rotor operable to cast ground fuel through said opening, a collecting receptacle adjacent said opening whereby non-grindable objects fed to the rotor may be cast into said receptacle, an expansion chamber communicating with said receptacle and said grinder chamber and having an impacting surface for the projecting thereagainst of ground fuel cast from the rotor, and means for creating a partial Vacuum in the expansion chamber for drawing air through the fuel thus rojected for extracting the finer particles rom the fuel.

' 16. In a pulverizer, a grinder com rising a chamber having a common opening or entry and discharge of the fuel, grinding parts in -the chamber and including a rotor operable to cast ground fuel through said opening, a

collecting receptacle adjacent said opening' whereby non-grindable objects fed to the ro- Y tor'm'ay be cast into. said receptacle, an expanf. .sion chamber above said opening and communicating therewith and the receptacle, an air passage extending through said receptacle to :saidl vexpansion chamber for vdirecting a streamf'of air through the ground fuel projected fromv said rotor through said opening. 17 In a pulverizer, al grinder comprising a chamber having a common opening for entry and discharge of the fuel, grinding parts in the chamber and including a rotor operable` tocast ground fuel through said opening, a collecting receptacle adjacent said opening whereby non-grindable objects fed to the rotor may be cast into said receptacle, the nongrindable objects being hurled by the rotor into the fuel accumulated in the vreceptacle with suiicient force to be buried therein and the excess fuel moving by gravityinto the grinder for grinding.-

18. In a pulverizer, a grinder comprising y a grinding chamber having an opening in the upper part thereof, grinding parts in the chamber and including a rotor adapted to project ground material through said openL mg, means for -supplying material to be ground/through said opening to said rotor,

and air inlet means for directing a stream ofl air through said opening.

19.'In a pulverizer, a crushing means, a-

feeding means, a grinding means, a separatlng means superimposed upon the grinding means, a pulverizing fuel and air mixture feeding means, and a collecting means in the grinding chamber for collecting non-grindable objects. v

20. A material reducing device comprising a crushing chamber having an opening through which material to be reduced is supplied, a reducing' rotor within said chamber for receiving said material, and a collecting receiver located to one side of the opening and substantially below the zone of operation of the rotor, said receiver being positioned to receive non-reducible objects supplied to said rotor with said material and cast off by the rotor during the downwardly travelling phase of its rotation.

21. A material reducing device comprising a crushing chamber -having an opening through which material to be reduced is supplied, a reducing rotor in said chamber for receiving said material, an inlet'means fordirecting a stream of air through said openinfr, and a collecting receiver located to one side of said opening and substantially below .the zone of operation of the rotor, the lower edgev of said opening being in an approximately lower plane than the plane of the axis of said rotor, so that as non-reducible objects enter the crushing chamber they will be cast out by the rotor into the receiver during the downwardly travelling phase of the rotation of said rotor. l

' 22. A material reducing device comprising v will be cast out by the rotor into the receiver during the downwardly travelling phase of the rotation of said rotor.

23. Amaterial reducing device comprising a-cr'ushing chamber having an opening therein through which materialto be reduced is supplied, a reducing rotor within said chamber, means for supplying said material through said opening to said rotor, an inlet means for directing a stream of air through said opening, and a collecting receiver located to one side of said opening and substantially below the zone of operation of the rotor and extending below the plane of the lower edge of said opening, said receiver being positioned -to receive non-reducible objects supplied to said rotor With said material and cast oi by the rotor during the downwardly travelling phase of its rotation.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name to this specification.

HENRY G. LYKKEN 

